On January 17th I went into the special collections center of SUU’s campus library and spent the most enthralling hour I’ve had in a while reading through old parchments of the University. I asked for anything SUU had created or what was documented in the years 1914 to 1919, and the archivist went to the back to pull out whatever she could find. I was first greeted with old yearbooks, a good starting point to see into the student body of SUU back in the day. The archivist pulled out more and more documents, and I was satisfied with what was given: pamphlets written by the students which revealed a distrust of a new principal, of The Board of Trustees 1913 to 1918, which detailed the allotted budget SUU was given, hundreds of scans of old Iron County Newspapers, some with stories regarding the university, and course catalogs, one produced by Roy F. Homer, the new principal I mentioned earlier. In addition, SUU has photos from throughout the universities existence; as I walked in they had a digital display of photos from WWII. I did not ask to see any pictures from our research period, but I did see pictures in the documents I purveyed over.
One thing of the most interest was the fact SUU existed back then as the Branch Agricultural College: a satellite school of the U, the archivist told me. This leads me to plan a visit to the U’s archive and see what information they have on the BAC.
I was given two great secondary sources to use: first was Anne O. Leavitt’s SUU: A Heritage History, which was a thick, well written history of SUU throughout its existence, and it was filled with documentation, citations to other resources, and pictures. This book will be invaluable in my research.
The second resource was former SUU president and Cedar City mayor Gerald R. Sherrat’s book “History of the College of Southern Utah 1897 to 1947.” The discovery that a former president was a historian, lived locally in cedar still, published a book on the university, AND “enjoyed talking about his research” (librarians words), has given me a wealth of information that I will try and exploit for my purposes. Looks like I need to review my interviewing skills.
With my light scan of materials, the direction of my research has become clearer: the war had little impact on the university’s attendance as few people already attended it, and it seemed not to disrupt the local community too often. However, during the time period of our research, the BAC was beginning to make some small changes towards becoming their own university, like adding more courses, and undertaking their own renovation projects. Perhaps the story of SUU during WWI isn’t a story of a college struggling with its student body being drafted into war, but that of a satellite university wanting to grow into its own.
A trip to the public library for more secondary sources is in order: I ran out of time to do so this weekend and the library is closed for the holiday. Regardless, the hour I spent in SUU’s special collections has foreshadowed more enjoyment for me.
